Smarter than your average Blair

Scotland's scrum-half may be the best on the planet, and tells Tom English that the squad is full of confidence.

SCOTLAND'S victory over Wales in last season's Six Nations was one of the uglier games you'll see, its only beauty lying in the fact that the Scots ground out one of those hard-fought wins that has the forwards bouncing off the walls with euphoria. A grunt-fest, it was. A classic, it was not.

Mike Blair recalls it readily enough, though. He was injured at the time; his damaged shoulder and detached bicep were giving him major gyp (his whole tournament was a write-off) and he watched the game from the East Stand alongside his father, Rob. It was the first time in 46 Tests stretching back five years that Blair Jnr had been a spectator at a Scotland match. Well, technically speaking. He might argue that he was a spectator throughout the Matt Williams era but at least he was on the bench then.

"Yes, that's right. For 17 games," he recalls, with not a hint of a smile. "The one start I got (under the Australian] was when Cus (Chris Cusiter] literally couldn't walk and still Matt left it until 24 hours before kick-off to give me the nod. But that's another story."
We don't dwell on dear ol' Mattie. This Thursday morning is dark and gloomy enough without reliving the dog days of his time in charge. The East Stand 2007 is where we're heading. "You get an entirely different complexion on things from up there," says Blair. "You get a perfect view and it was weird because it looked such a bloody easy game from where I was sitting. I remember thinking, 'why didn't you pass it there?' and 'how come you couldn't see that gap?' It's a lot harder down on the pitch, I can tell you."

He remembers his father imploring the Scots to 'move it!' on a couple of occasions but for the most part, Rob Blair just did what he normally does; he sat quietly in anonymity and took it all in. That's how he likes it. This week his boy will offer him free tickets for the France match and Rob will say thanks but no thanks. He has his beliefs, you see. "Dad likes to pay to get in. It's something he feels he should do and I'm not sure I understand it but that's the way he does it. Himself and my mum, Daphne, will decline the tickets and they'll be over in the east stand as usual."

This talk of his dad triggers something in Blair's memory and he laughs at the thought of it. "I've got to tell you a story about him watching a Scotland game at Murrayfield," he says. "I can't remember what match it was but I was playing and dad was in his usual spot and there was a bit of a loudmouth sitting behind him. Nobody there knew who dad was. He's sitting down minding his own business when the other guy goes: 'That f**kin' Blair has missed a tackle!' Dad's biting his tongue because it was somebody else who missed the tackle. He's saying to himself, 'say nothing, don't make a scene'.

"A few minutes later and another tackle is missed: 'F**kin' Blair again!' shouts the guy. But it wasn't me. Dad has had enough of it now. He turns around and says: 'Actually, it wasn't Blair.' The fella goes: What the f**k do you know about it?' To which the reply was: 'I'M HIS FATHER!' Oh, I'd love to have witnessed that. I think there was silence in that section of the stand for the rest of the game. I think I once said in an interview that my mum was my hero because she raised four boys. I should have said five boys and counted my dad. He's brilliant."
Young Blair is brilliant, too, of course. There's hardly a better scrum-half around at the moment and by that we mean not just in Europe but in the wider world. An international coach – not Frank Hadden – was recently heard eulogising Blair and suggesting that him captaining the Lions in 2009 wouldn't be such a mad idea. There's probably a few people ahead of him in the queue – Jason White for one – but Blair has a global reputation now as a man with the intelligence and ability to read and shape games. He nailed the fundamentals of scrum-half play a long time ago but it is his tactical nous and the speed and accuracy of his decision-making that elevates him above the norm.

He's getting better all the time, too. Some of this will have something to do with Andy Robinson, of course. Robinson's passion is in tune with Blair's. In fact, it out-strips it. In fairness, there's hardly another rugby man on the planet who is as intense about the game as the Edinburgh coach.

"Andy just lives around the corner from me in the west end and he's always gone before me in the morning and he's not back until late evening," says Blair. "He actually inspires you to work harder because you can see how desperate he is for things to go well. His attention to detail is incredible. The really impressive thing is the way he'll come up to you on a one-on-one basis and pass on a little bit of advice, something to tweak that will make things better. He notices things you've done, or haven't done, in games. You think you might have got away with an error but he sees it. He spots the tiniest things, the little margins that can make all the difference in improving us. He must watch the DVDs 30 or 40 times. Honestly, there's no hiding place."
If Blair is happy to have Robinson then you can be sure that the feeling is entirely mutual. The scrum-half re-signed for Edinburgh in June, just before the Bob Carruthers saga went into overdrive. "Things were fairly messy around here," he says of that time. "It was quite a brave decision to stay. I had opportunities to leave but it didn't feel right. I didn't want to be the last one out and the cause of things going really tits-up."

Edinburgh are improving – this season they won four games in a row for the first time in three years – but they're on the back-burner for a while now. This is Scotland-time. He goes into the tournament as the man in possession of the No.9 jersey but knows that can change in an instant. This is the battle he has fought in recent years and one that has left him somewhat philosophical about the outcome.

"Cus and I, we just get on with things. He had a lot of starts under Matt and I've had slightly more of it under Frank. We both realise the situation we're in. I accept it more easily now. Chris is a world class player and if he's picked ahead of me, I won't be happy, but I'll have to say fair enough. I'd have stronger feelings about it if I felt he wasn't a class act. I go into each team selection knowing there's a 50-50 chance of me starting and it's only going to get harder because Rory Lawson is on the scene now and he's doing well at Gloucester.

"All three of us have got strengths but the things people point to as my strengths, the other two have them as well. We're pigeon-holed. Rory's solid and doesn't make mistakes. Chris is a workaholic. I'm, well, I don't know what I am. This is something that Cus and I have had to deal with for three or four years now and we can live with it. There isn't this intense rivalry. Just respect, really."

Blair doesn't do predictions so he won't make a call on the Six Nations beyond saying that there is a growing confidence in the Scottish ranks brought about by the new talent that is emerging around him, even since the World Cup. He says that the World Cup left him with mixed emotions. "The overriding feeling was relief at making the quarter-finals because I think it would have been an embarrassment if we didn't. At the same time, I can't help thinking that it was a lost opportunity. Beat Italy and Argentina and we're in the semi-final. We had a great chance when you look at it that way."

There are other opportunities ahead, of course. Five of them in a seven-week stretch, starting with an enticing match with a brand new France team at Murrayfield. Rob will be watching the action from the east stand on Sunday, you can be sure. Keep an eye out for him if that's your location. And before you open your mouth to slag off his son, make sure you get your facts right.